The Passwords

A man worked for a high-security institution, and one day he went in to work only to find that he could not log in to his computer terminal. His password wouldn't work. Then he remembered that the passwords are reset every month for security purposes. So he went to his boss and they had this conversation:
Man-"Hey boss, my password is out of date."
Boss-"Yes, that's right. The password is different, but if you listen carefully you should be able to figure out the new one: It has the same amount of letters as your old password, but only four of the letters are the same."
Man: "Thanks boss."
With that, he went and correctly logged into his station.
What was the new password?
BONUS: What was his old password?

Hint

It is nine letters long. Also, a "password" can be more than one word...Hide

Boss-"Yes, that's right. The password is different, but if you listen carefully you should be able to figure out the new one: It has the same amount of letters as your old password, but only four of the letters are the same."

The 'but if you listen carefully' was the only part I didn't like. But, hey, if you said "The password is different" would be realllly easy! So, great job.

May I offer another small tweak? When the man comes into his boss's ofc, he should say something like: "I tried to log onto my computer, but my password was out of date." The man is aware that his password is out of date... and therefore no longer "out of date"... so he would know better than to use the present tense: "My password IS out of date." Using some version of the above, he can use the past tense (i.e., "My password WAS out of date") without it seeming odd or drawing too much attention to the line.

Also, I agree about putting "listen carefully" before "your password is different," because it does suggest the answer will be included in what follows, not in what the boss has already said.

Finally, the only reason I found this teaser easy was that the boss's speech, which he tells us contains the solution, is so brief that there aren't many possible red herrings to think about. (Another possibility would be to somehow omit the overt hint that the solution is in his words.)

IRRELEVANT, PEDANTIC DIGRESSION

I looked up "i.e." to make sure I was using it correctly above, and I learned or was reminded of the following trivial but occasionally useful information:

The abbreviation "i.e." means "that is" (from the Latin "id est") and should not be confused with "e.g." -- which means "for example" (from the Latin "exempli gratia").

Two other occasionally confused Latin abbreviations used in English are "etc.", which means "and so on" (short for "et cetera" -- literally "and the rest") and "et al" (no period used with this one), which means "and others" (short for "et alii"). The two abbreviations have similar but not quite identical meanings; the main thing to beware of is the common mispronunciation "ekk cetera" (and accompanying misspelling "ect.").

EQUALLY IRRELEVANT (UNPAID) PLUG:

For intense brain teasing and other perverse pleasures, I'd heartily recommend the newly re-released DVD boxed set of the bizarre, beautiful, utterly unique MTV animated sci-fi (sort of) series, "Aeon Flux" (not to be confused with the new live-action movie, with which it has almost nothing in common and on which the show's creator, Peter Chung, had no input. In a way, the episodes of the series ARE puzzles... with no easy or obvious solutions.

It stumped me!!!!
The funny thing is, I used to have a password like that. If my kids tried to guess it, I told them the answer using it clearly in the sentence. They never got it. I thought I was so clever! I guess not!!! :

Oh good greif People look way too much into this. It was a great teaser. Perfectly worded. I got it fairly easy. It took a couple of reads and some logic use, but to say that you need to change it and analyze the teaser is crazy.

Precious, not everyone has a problem with being disagreeable, you apparently don't. I, however, disagree with you, it was a brilliant teaser, it made perfect sense, please don't be a spoilsport just because you didn't get it.
I only 'got' half of it, and I enjoyed it very very much. I happen to like things that make me think.

This is the kind of brainteaser that everyoe shouold enjoy. That's why they are called such bobdole must be hi-minded since he his from the Rocky Mountain High state. Thanks much for the lesson on showing us we don't always know how to shovel out the extra words when a politician speaks.

I got it!!! It was a good one, but I agree with a few of the others above, I think one or two little tweaks would make it a PERFECT teaser. If you know this type, it's pretty easy. There's a teaser called GRY on here that is excellent and that was my first meeting with this kind of teaser. And gnosys (sorry if I got ur name wrong) I found what you said totally correct and the other stuff very very interesting. Thanks for the teaser!

wow that was really good!! Keep em coming...!!! That made me think for a while

(user deleted)Dec 03, 2005

Gnosis, I have to hand it to you. You have a streak of genius!! you are what i aspire to be!! You are really smart, but you really need to stop leaving those long comments and correcting everyone. I learned the hard way that people do not like criticism-no matter how constructive it is. Do not take it the wrong way. If you are offended, then I know what type of person you are-the ones mentioned before. If you aren't, well you're like me.

(user deleted)Dec 03, 2005

PS: YOUR CORRECTIONS WERE PERFECT! SUPERB! MAGNIFICO!!

(user deleted)Dec 03, 2005

Oh, I forgot to add that this was a very good teaser. One of those where you want to slap yourself when you see the answer.

are you all kidding me? this is terribly written! you can't say "the password is different, but if you listen closely you might be able to guess the new one"! or whatever the heck it said..hello..if he just told him what the password was..why would he tell him to pay attention to try and figure it out......let's think about this one here people.

Great job, Bob! I really enjoy "stumpers" such as this. Without getting verbose as some critics did, let me say that the extra "flack" in the boss's reply is what really threw me off- when he added "four letters are different." But it was a terrific teaser and not many people can be clever enough to come up with such quality yet alone be brave enough to post it. FABULOUS EFFORT!

Sorry Patpat about the storm cutting off your power. We were lucky in my part of WNY. Just had high winds, rain. Regarding the teaser, I thought it was pretty good, but I had never seen it before, so it was new to me. I have to agree with Imurray and Coachpisco, where are all the new teasers that people are submitting? Surely there must be some good ones.

I have also been wondering for some time now why we are getting so many reruns. I know it was stated a while back that some people are new to this site and so the reruns are new to them. But I have only been a member for a little over a year and I am already getting bored by reruns. How about several days of new ones and then inserting a good rerun? I also get tired of going seeing 115 or so comments, most of which were made 1-3 years ago.

This is why English teachers harp on punctuation: If this were correctly written with quotation marks around the stated critical words, it wouldn't be the good teaser that it is...and we would have gotten it!

Great! I actually got it!
But my only question is when the boss says the new password is different, he says "but if you listen closely you will be able to get the new one". I don't get why the boss would say details about the new one after he says it.
Just a thought. Liked it though

Fun - but I wouldn't call this place a high security institution. They use dictionary words for their passwords and his boss knows his password? That is probably the weakest password security procedure a company can use.

The part about only four letters being the same makes no sense and the conversation is only clever cover if it seems natural otherwise the boss should have just said it plainly.

In the real world of high security I doubt a password could have spaces and NOT have at least one numeral or capital letter. The password would also be assigned by a program and never be a cute word or phrase.

The essence of the teaser is cute but the details spoil it upon inspection.